“Mara! Can you hear me?” Anna repeated over her iCom.
It had been eight minutes since Anna had heard from SID, and in that time, she had covered almost the entire distance of her return journey. Her speed now close to 375 mph. Her body a small blur falling like a rocket in reentry. During her descent, lights flashed erratically under the cumulonimbus dome just beneath her, like old war footage of cluster bombs. A storm was raging below her, and her friend was stuck in the middle of it.
How could Mara have missed so badly on the weather today? She knew every element of the daily weather from wind speed to dew points, to the amount of fine particulate matter in the air. Maybe she was distracted, or the data was corrupt. Either way, Anna wasn’t going to let her friend live this down, once they were both safe and on the ground.
She rapidly approached the top of the cloud dome. At this distance, the clouds looked like a living thing, swirling at impossible speeds. Anna broke the outer edge of the storm and immediately found herself flying blind in a dark grey fog. It took her a moment to adjust to the change in light, as ice and water streaked across her face mask and blurred her vision. She checked her iCom for the coordinates of the terrace and felt a renewed sense of dread. The terrace was gone. She tried to lock onto Mara and was unable to find a trace or signal.
Anna instinctively slowed down as she tried to figure out what to do next. Mara would want her out of the storm and harm’s way. But there was no way she was going to leave her friend behind, not while there was a chance she was still in danger. Anna played back her flight path and identified the location of her initial launch. Another 15,000 feet down and to the left. Anna pressed her arms to her side to reduce drag and picked up speed.
Air currents rocked her body, but her suit protected her from the sting of rain and hail. The silence of her earlier flight was now replaced with the continuous rumble of thunder, as lights flashed all around her leaving afterimages like blooming flowers.
Four hundred feet to go and the clouds began to part, revealing a small clearing no more than a couple of hundred feet across, surrounded by clouds spinning in a circular motion. In the middle of the vortex, she saw a figure struggling against the winds. It was Mara.
Anna was buffeted in all directions, but she maintained her course. Two hundred feet away and she could see that Mara was still conscious. Fifty feet and she locked eyes with Mara for the first time, who looked up with an expression of both surprise and exhaustion.
Anna looked at the spin of the vortex and tracked the direction of the wind currents on her iCom. She had to grab Mara at the right angle, or she would run the risk of being sucked into the same twisting current. Anna followed the center of the vortex, where the winds were most calm, for as long as she could, then hurled herself in Mara’s direction at the very last second.
Her arm reached out and caught Mara’s arm like a hook, pulling her free from the spinning force. The two clung to one another as they hit the edge of the winds, and their bodies shot out toward the ground like rocks fired from a trebuchet. Anna pulled Mara even tighter, as Mara clung on now with both hands.
Free from the vortex, Anna began to gradually reduce their speed, though the winds still buffeted them from side to side. She looked over at Mara. The clouds were so dense that she could see only feet ahead and the rain streaked their masks. Mara was silently mouthing words, but she couldn’t hear. Anna tapped her ear and shook her head.
Suddenly, a streak of light reflected off Mara’s mask. At first, Anna thought it was another lightning strike. But the light was warm and sustained and fell at a precise angle. Sunlight poured through a clearing just above their heads as the clouds began to thin all around them. Anna looked up and saw more streaks of sunlight break through as the storm quickly retreated, faster than she had ever seen clouds dissipate before.
The two continued to fly, arm in arm, toward the rapidly approaching ground. The skies were now clear, and both could make out the lake and the shining spire outside Mara’s home, but the two were still surrounded by the last of the falling rain that glistened in the sunlight like tiny drops on fire. Anna looked down. They were flying faster than the last of the downpour, and it created the illusion that the rain was flying upwards; time winding in reverse. As Anna slowed down, the rain looked frozen in midair for a brief moment, before natural order was restored, and the rain continued its path downward.
Anna still held on to her friend as they lightly touched down on the lawn outside Mara’s home. The grass glistened in the sun and the last barrage of the rain pelted the lake in small splashing sounds just seconds later. Then silence.
Anna released her mask and pulled back her hood. Her hair was matted but dry. She put her hands on her knees and tried to regain her breath as if she had just finished a long race. She looked up, her eyes still wide open in excitement, then broke out into laughter.
“That was awesome!” Anna said. She put her hands behind her head and looked straight up into the clearing sky. “Oh my god. That was amazing!”
Mara released her own mask and took in short shallow breaths. She looked dazed. But it was more than that, Anna thought. Mara looked scared and disoriented; her eyes unable to focus on any one spot.
“Mara?” Anna asked. The smile on her face started to fade.
Mara didn’t respond.
“Mara? Are you okay?”
Finally, Mara looked up as if she were hearing a distant voice. She took in a deep breath, shook her head, and tried to steady herself.
“Yes. I’m . . . ok,” Mara said weakly. She even tried smiling, but it was a thin smile that didn’t reflect in her eyes. “I think I’m just a little dizzy.”
“What the heck was that? A tornado?”
“I don’t know,” Mara said.
“And did you see how fast the storm disappeared? That was crazy.”
“Yes, it was.”
“I guess I don’t have to tell you this, but you really biffed it on the weather report,” Anna smiled. “What happened up there?”
“I made a mistake. Somewhere. I don’t know,” Mara said.
“Well, mistake or not. That was still a lot of fun.” Anna said. “And now I have something to hang over your head. So, win-win.”
Mara finally allowed a slight smile to cross her face. Her eyes softened.
“You’re such a strange one, Anna,” Mara said. The light reflected off the bottom edges of her eyes. “That’s why I guess I love you.”
“You’re pretty weird yourself. That’s why I guess I love you, too,” Anna said back. “So, what do you have planned next for me? An asteroid strike? Maybe an alien invasion?”
Mara stared at Anna for a good five seconds without responding. A faint smile crossed her face, both wistful and tired.
“No. I think I’m done for the day,” Mara said. “Can you tell your uncle I’m not going to be able to make it to the fair tonight?”
“Yeah. Of course,” Anna said, then instinctively took a step forward, bridging the distance between the two. “Hey, are you going to be okay? Because I can stay with you tonight if you want.”
“I’ll be ok. I just need some rest,” Mara answered. “Anyway, shouldn’t you be getting ready? I understand you’re meeting someone at the fair.”
“Oh, yeah. I guess I am,” she looked at the time on her iCom. “And great. It looks like I’ve only got about a half hour to get ready, and I have no idea what I’m going to wear. You think, maybe, you can print me up a really nice-looking outfit?”
“Not this time,” Mara said.
“Fine,” Anna reached down and picked up her pile of wet clothes she had discarded earlier. “I’ll see you tomorrow then, right?”
Mara nodded.
“There’s so much I can’t wait to tell you,” Anna said, then paused. “Thanks again for everything, Mara. I’ll never forget today.”
They smiled at each other one last time as Anna slowly rose into the air. Mara watched as she flew over the tops of the trees and out of sight, holding on to the image of her young friend for as long as she could. She turned toward her house and sighed deeply, partly out of exhaustion and partly for the long night she knew she had ahead.
<Why didn’t you tell her, Mara?>
Tears welled up in Mara’s eyes and she found it hard to breathe.
“It’s time, SID. You know what to do,” Mara said, her voice flat.
<You can’t . . . >
Mara turned off her iCom, silencing SID’s voice and any further conversation, then shut the protective barrier behind her.